Jesus is saying that one drink of natural water will temporarily satisfy your thirst, but it will not eliminate your thirst forever. He says, “whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.” He cannot possibly mean, “whoever continually drinks of this water will thirst again.” As long as you continuously (or iteratively, that is, every hour or so) drink, you will never thirst.
In verse 13 the Lord Jesus is speaking of drinking normal water.
John 4:13 proves that continuous drinking is not in view. We still call him John the baptizing one nearly 2,000 years after his last baptism. Obviously, John was not continuously baptizing people since he was dead. Wallace might have mentioned Mark 6:14, “And he said, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead.’” That is a present articular participle. Wallace also mentions Luke 2:18, another present articular participle: “And all those who heard it marveled…” Obviously that does not refer to continuous action. But he also mentions 2 Thess 2:6-7 regarding “the one who is restraining.” That is a present articular participle and it does not refer to ongoing continuous action since Paul says that the restrainer will be taken away during the seven years of the Tribulation: “until He is taken out of the way” (2 Thess 2:7). However, those are all aorist articular participles. Many of the examples he gives clearly do not refer to continuous action: Mark 6:44 (“those who ate the loaves”) Luke 1:45 (“blessed is she who believed”) John 6:39 (“this is the will of the Father who sent me”) Acts 1:16 (“those who arrested Jesus”). That is the category in which he gives the example of John 4:13. See above paragraph to see how indicatives are used in the present.Ĭoncerning articular participles, he speaks of some that function as adjectives and some that have a substantival use: “It functions in the place of a substantive ” (p. Wallace says that in the case of anarthrous participles, they “behave just as they do in the indicative now the point of reference is the controlling verb, not the speaker” (p. Present articular participles often do not refer to continuous action. 534) futuristic presents, which “describe a future event” (p. 532) conative presents, which “portrays the subject as desiring to do something, attempting to do something, or at the point of almost doing something” (p. 526) perfective presents, which “emphasize that the results of a past action are still continuing” (p. Wallace later discusses historical presents, which “describe a past event” (p. It is ongoing, but has a definite and soon stopping point (e.g., Matt 25:8 Mark 1:37 Acts 2:8 3:12 Rom 9:1). This too is not action that is continuous.
Wallace also lists progressive presents which refers to “a scene in progress” (p. Examples he gives are Mark 2:5 (“your sins are forgiven”) John 3:3 (“I say to you”) Acts 9:34 (“Jesus Christ heals you”) Acts 25:11 (“I appeal to Caesar”). It is relatively common” ( Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, p. Wallace himself lists instantaneous presents (also called punctiliar presents) where present indicatives refer to “an action is completed at the moment of speaking. The present indicative often does not refer to continuous action or even to action taking place in the present. So in this article I sometimes speak of John 4:13, but clearly the same point is true of v 14.) But before I get there, let’s see proof of the fact that the present tense in the indicative mood and in participles need not refer to continuous action. (John 4:14 uses an aorist subjunctive, but it clearly is used synonymously with ho pinōn in John 4:13. There are two rock-solid proofs that the drinking in John 4:13-14 cannot mean he who continually drinks. The context, not the verb tense, tells us.Īnd it is not true for articular participles, either (e.g., he who drinks or everyone who drinks). That is not true in the indicative mood (e.g., he drinks). We sometimes are led to believe that the Greek present tense means that continuous action is taking place. one drink would quench your thirst forever? Hope you can help. While I found Bob’s article very helpful, can you please elaborate a bit more on how we know that ho pinōn here does not mean “everyone who continually drinks…,” but rather means everyone who drinks once, i.e. Of course, he must say that since he recognizes, though does not say, that ho pinōn is a synonym for ho pisteuōn, which he has already said refers to continuous belief.’ “Amazingly, Wallace says ho pinōn here means, ‘everyone who continually drinks…,’ ibid, p. In the article “The One Who Believes: Is Continuous Faith Required to be Born Again?” by Bob Wilkin in the second footnote regarding John 4:13, Wilkin mentions: I received this email question from a reader:
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